More Women Accuse James Franco of Sexual Misconduct

Allegations that Franco coerced women into nudity and sex acts, both on and off-camera, detailed in new L.A. Times report

James Franco, photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic

More women have come forward to accuse James Franco of “inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior” in a new Los Angeles Times report, adding to allegations made on social media earlier this week. Sarah Tither-Kaplan, Hilary Dusome, Natalie Chmiel, Katie Ryan, and Devyn Labella, former students at Franco’s now-shuttered acting school Studio 4, describe what they felt was an atmosphere of exploitation at the school, with Franco taking advantage of his powerful position to coerce women into performing on-camera scenes involving nudity and sex acts. Another woman, filmmaker Violet Paley, detailed to the Times an accusation that Franco had forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2016.

The Studio 4 students told the Times that they would reluctantly participate in scenes they found questionable because they thought that performing with James Franco offered them the chance to land bigger roles.

“I didn’t have agency representation at the time, so I thought, ‘Well, I’m not going to be able to get into good auditions, so this might be my opportunity,’” LaBella said. Tither-Kaplan claimed that the women who did not want to perform in nude scenes were cut from films: “I got it in my head pretty quickly that, OK, you don’t say ‘no’ to this guy.”

Tither-Kaplan also detailed to the Times an incident in which she performed in a nude orgy scene with Franco and other women on the set of the movie The Long Home in 2015. Tither-Kaplan alleges that Franco removed plastic guards covering other actresses' vaginas and simulated performing oral sex on them without protection. (Another actress in the film confirmed Tither-Kaplan’s allegations to the Times.)

Paley told the Times that she was in a relationship with Franco in 2016 when he forced her to perform oral sex on him. “I was talking to him, all of a sudden his penis was out,” she said. “I got really nervous, and I said, ‘Can we do this later?’ He was kind of nudging my head down, and I just didn’t want him to hate me, so I did it.”

Throughout the L.A. Times report, Franco’s attorneys deny the allegations.

On Tuesday’s “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert asked Franco if he had a response to the allegations. After Franco reiterated that he supports the Time’s Up campaign, he said that he hadn’t read the tweets but “heard about them.” He added, “The things that I heard that went on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long. I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think it’s a good thing and I support it.”

Last night, January 10, Franco addressed the allegations on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” He said that he read some of the tweets and called them “not accurate.” He continued, “But one of the things that I’ve learned is that this is a conversation that obviously needs to be had. There are people—women and others—who have not been a part of this conversation, and I truly believe—and why I was wearing the pin—is that they need to part a part of this conversation. And so I support that.”

Meyers then brought up since-deleted tweets from actress Ally Sheedy, who worked with Franco on an off-Broadway play in 2014. Franco said that he “had a great relationship with her,” and did not know why she tweeted, “Please never ever ask me why I left the film/tv business,” seemingly directed at him and accompanied in another tweet with the hashtag #MeToo. Sheedy was not mentioned in the Los Angeles Times report.

Meyers’ last question on the topic for Franco was: “Does it make you look back at all and question any of your behavior in the past based on this new perspective of how women have perceived things for so long?”

Franco responded: “I think what I’ve really learned—and being here and this week, that show [the Golden Globes]—like I said, there are stories that need to get out. There are people that need to be heard. I have my own side of this story, but I believe in these people that have been underrepresented getting their stories out enough that I will, you know, hold back things that I could say just because I believe in it that much. And if I have to take a knock because I’m not gonna, you know, try and, you know, actively refute things, then I will because I believe in it that much.”